Canned Coffee

Each country has different taste in enjoying and serving coffee. One of them is Japan.

Canned coffee is ubiquitous in Japan, with a large number of companies competing fiercely and offering various types for sale. Japanese canned coffee is already brewed and ready to drink. It is available in supermarkets and convenience stores, with vast numbers of cans being sold in vending machines that offer heated cans in the autumn and winter, and cold cans in the warm months.

Canned coffee is a Japanese creation, and the term kan kōhī is wasei-eigo: the English-language term "can coffee" was created in Japan and is believed to have entered English usage as a way of distinguishing it from a typical can of, for instance, Folgers or Nescafé. In the United States, at least, "canned coffee" is the preferred term, if used at all.

UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. is well known in Japan for pioneering canned coffee with milk in 1969. The official government web site of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, claims that the world's first canned coffee—Mira Coffee—appeared in Shimane in 1965, but this was short-lived.

More significant perhaps was the 1973 introduction by Pokka Coffee of the hot and cold drink vending machine. The Japanese Wikipedia version of this article claims that it was this introduction that allowed the industry to take off, and in 1983 canned coffee makers shipped more than 100 million cases.

Pokka Original and Vivo Coffee, short and tall straight-sided steel cans from the late 1970s. Use of Western faces on Japanese coffee cans is a long-standing design motif.

One noteworthy element of Japanese canned coffee is the liberal use of English both for the word "coffee" and the brand name. English is also used. Occasionally the Japanese word kōhī (コーヒー?) dominates the can design, or, for effect, the kanji for coffee (珈琲?) may be used as well (also pronounced kōhī). Apart from company and content information English is the primary language used on Japanese coffee cans, often for marketing and branding reasons.

Can design and shape have changed drastically. The earliest cans were simple in terms of graphic design and were often corrugated in the middle two-thirds of the can. Cans with straight steel sides appeared next, finally settling on a more modern shape. Like the earlier cans, this type also starts as a flat sheet that is curled and seamed. Extruded steel is also used extensively. Aluminum coffee cans are almost non-existent, although UCC Black is a notable exception.

Certain clichés entered the world of canned coffee graphic design early on and remain in use today. One in particular is white cream swirling into a cup of black coffee, while another is coffee beans. A more noteworthy cliché is the use of Western faces as part of the design, notably Pokka Original from the early 1970s, and Boss Coffee which first appeared in the early 1990s. Of seemingly more recent origin is the use of ice cubes on many iced coffee brands.

Do want to have a coffee? - [Co fui no mu?]

Some article from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_coffee

Photos from: http://japanguidebook.com
http://photo-dict.faqs.org/photofiles/list/1441/1955Japan%27s_flag.jpg

Koffie Fabriek Aroma Bandoeng

Aroma Coffee Factory

Banceuy Street, in downtown Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, still dark and swing. However, a thin cloud of smoke was seen coming out of a chimney-style art deco building hidden among auto parts and motorcycle shops that are still "asleep" that morning. 

In it since 4 AM, Widyapratama (50), owner of the place, with his two employees seemed busy roast coffee with an old toaster machine made from rubber wood.

Various old machinery, ranging from machine toaster, coffee beans dividing machines with centrifugal system, grinder machines, old jars, coffee packaging to wrap the text of which still uses the old spelling, as if to bring the atmosphere back to the past or classical. Implies that the coffee aroma as if unaffected by the development of competing technologies apllied and seeded by a variety of industries.

Coffee beans are obtained from various city and province such as Aceh, Medan, Toraja, Jember, East Timor and is really red beans and old. Then it stored in burlap sacks in storage for 5 to 7 years. When ready to ground, dried seeds advance proficiency level in the sun for 7 hours. Freshly ground, roasted and milled.

The whole production process is adhered to since 1930, including the principle that coffee should be sold fresh. "The important thing is how, not the amount. Why must big (company), but do not really care the process," said Widya.  

No wonder when Widya very open to anyone who wants to know more about coffee, or want to see the Coffee Aroma Bandung whole process of making coffee at the factory. "Not everyone wants to do a process like this. It have to be be patient and persevering." said Widya while occasionally pacing from the factory to a tiny shop located on the front of the factory.

That morning, when the store has not opened at 8 AM, has a knock on the door of his shop from a number of customers. There was a civil servant and a pedicab driver who want come to enjoy the homemade coffee with a very affordable price, just pay Rp. 3.000,- to Rp. 3.800,- (or not until $1) per grams.

Kompas, Wednesday, May 28th, 2004.

Source & photos : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kopi-Aroma/85523694452

Kopi Aroma or also known as “Koffie Fabriek Aroma” is a coffee company that founded since 1936 by the 1st generation: Houw Sian on Jalan Banceuy, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. 

Why do People Like Starbucks?

Yeah, it's rather unremarkable. Starbucks is everywhere. What is remarkable is how successful they are. They use sub-par coffee beans and price it as if they were brewing the good stuff. Instead of saying "we use cheap burnt South American robusta coffee beans" they say, "we use a wonderful, straightforward blend of Latin American coffees." What's a "straightforward blend" anyway?

If you are a coffee drinker/addict, a person of taste, and a frequenter of Starbucks, I want to know why. Is it because they are conveniently located or is it for the fact that a cup of Starbucks has replaced quality taste with up to 300% more caffeine?

I think they have no more special things about the coffee, but they have a quality (maybe) about how to sell standard things to be valuable things. Like attitude to sell, quality service and maybe a kind like this one.


If you think Starbucks has gone so far, please check this link: CLICK lol

Countries that have a Starbucks

inspired by: evan-tishuk
photos: wiki & michaelhutagalung.com

Kopi Luwak, The World's Rarest Gourmet Coffee

Kopi Luwak (pronounced 'kopi luak') or Civet coffee is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets. The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines (where the product is called Motit Coffee in the Cordillera, or Kape Alamid in Tagalog areas) and in East Timor (locally called kafé-laku). - Wikipedia

Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an area well-known for its excellent coffee and expensive (maybe). Also native to the area is a small civit-like animal called a Paradoxurus. That's the scientific name, the locals call them luwaks. These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favorite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy's stomach, it undergoes chemical treatments and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still-intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee.
The taste of this coffee is like no other, i mean really different. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate. Other terms used to describe it are earthy, musty and exotic. The body is almost syrupy and it's very smooth.

One must wonder about the circumstances that brought about the first cup of Kopi Luwak coffee. Who would think to (or even want to) collect and roast beans out of animal feces? Perhaps a native figured it was easier to collect the beans from the ground this way, rather than having to work harder and pick them from the trees? We'll likely never know. But because of the strange method of collecting, there isn't much Kopi Luwak produced in the world. The average total annual production is only around 500 pounds of beans.
Kopi Luwak was the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $100 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States by weight, and served in coffeehouses in Southeast Asia by the cup. It is increasingly becoming available elsewhere, though supplies are limited; only 1,000 pounds (450 kg) at most make it into the world market each year.
Some more adventurous coffee houses are selling it by the cup, but you won't likely find it at your local coffee shop just yet.

One small cafe, the Heritage Tea Rooms, in the hills outside Townsville in Queensland, Australia, has Kopi Luwak coffee on the menu at A$50.00 (=US$33.00) per cup, selling approximately seven cups a week, which has gained nationwide Australian and international press, creating over $5 Million AUD of media attention for this rare coffee. In April 2008, the brasserie of Peter Jones department store in London's Sloane Square started selling a blend of Kopi Luwak peanut and Blue Mountain called Caffe Raro for £50 (=US$99.00) a cup. It has also recently become available at Selfridges, London, as part of their "Edible" range of exotic foods and beverages. The coffee may also be bought by the cup or as beans at The Funnel Mill in Santa Monica, California. It is also available in Toronto, Canada.
The coffee isn't so spectacular that it's truly worth that amount of money. You are paying for the experience of enjoying such an unusual and rare delicacy. Every body maybe like to drink coffee, but not much of the them will have a chance to taste the Kopi Luwak, which is one of the most chemically complex foods in the world. Icing the brew also seems to bring out some flavors that cannot be found in other coffee processes.

Arabica Coffee Beans Are Pricey Yet Priceless!

Arabica coffee beans are known for a better-flavored coffee. There are two main species of coffee beans that are grown for sale: Robusta and Arabica. Gourmet coffee houses serve the smooth and very palatable Arabica coffees, while the worst cup of coffee you ever had probably came from a pot of bitter Robusta coffee that had been sitting for hours.

If you have been spoiled by the quality coffee served at coffee houses and cafes, you are probably craving the taste of Arabica coffee beans. You can brew fine coffee at home as well; the trick is to use only Arabica coffee beans. Organic coffee beans, grown without the use of artificial fertilizers, allows plantation owners to grow their farms in a sustainable way, without the use of chemicals, thus producing a mild, non acidic coffee bean. You should expect to pay a little more for organic coffee beans, but you can be confident in knowing that you are securing the future of the coffee industry worldwide.

Most specialty coffee and tea retail outlets only sell Arabica coffee and beans. On the other hand, the large commercial companies either sell Robusta coffee beans, or a mixture of both types of beans. This is because they are cheaper for the wholesaler and subsequently cheaper for the consumer. Arabica coffee beans produce a stronger-tasting coffee, and actually contain less caffeine than robusta beans. They cost a little more, but are far more satisfying.

While many people are only familiar with coffee beans grown in Colombia, they are actually commercially grown in more than 80 countries around the world. Coffee only grows near the equator, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. While it is grown at varying altitudes, experts say that the richest coffee beans are harvested at high altitude plantations.

Wholesale coffee suppliers are available via mail-order catalogs or the Internet and can ready to assist you in making your next coffee purchase. Why pay retailers more, when cheaper costing, fresher wholesale coffee beans are available to you? Wholesale coffee bean buying allows you to eliminate the high cost of retail buying and let you purchase the same beans at a much lower cost. A savings of 20-30% over store chain prices can easily be expected. Savings can be more if you just shop around.

Wholesale coffee beans are far fresher than those beans that may have been sitting on a dusty store shelf, not for days, but for weeks, sometimes months longer than if you were to buy them direct from a wholesaler. You can be assured of the quality afforded you when you select wholesale coffee beans. Each supplier generally offers a huge selection of beans, bean blends and roasts available. You can order standard size one pound, or two pound packages directly from the wholesaler easier than if you were to pick them from a shelf in your favorite market.

How to Make Restaurant Quality Coffee At Home

Have you ever wondered how restaurants get their coffee to taste so good?

First of all, restaurants are in the business of pampering you so they devote much more time to the perfection of a good cup of coffee. Sometimes I'll remember a restaurant just because of their excellent coffee.

So what are their secrets and how can you duplicate this recipe at home? It may surprise you to find out that the French Press brewing method could be the secret in achieving that restaurant quality taste. Most fine restaurants use a press pot, also known as the French Press, which produces an extremely rich cup of coffee. Press pot coffee is coffee steeped for 3-4 minutes between 195 to 205 degrees F. It produces a thicker and much richer taste than an auto-drip machine can produce.

A disadvantage of the French Press is it may leave trace amounts of coffee sediment. But the rich taste more than makes up for the small amount of sediment at the bottom of your cup.

So first, start off with a quality medium roast coffee, which is what most restaurants use. I can give you a couple of good recommendations. Seattle's Best Breakfast Blend, Starbucks Breakfast Blend or Starbucks Sulawesi Coffee is 3 excellent choices. These are full-bodied coffees yet very smooth tasting. They are some of our best sellers at PerfectCoffees.com and work well for French Press brewing.

You want to grind the coffee slightly larger than you would for drip coffee. Too fine of a grind will produce a bitter cup of coffee. If your grind is too coarse, the coffee will taste weak. A quality grinder is the best thing you can do to improve the taste of French press coffee.

Remove the plunger from the press pot and put 1 rounded tablespoon of coarse ground coffee per each 6oz. of water into the pot. You can adjust this to your own taste.

Coffee is 99% water so use clean filtered or bottled water free from chlorine and other minerals that affect the taste of coffee. Boil the water and remove it from the heat for five minutes before you pour it. This will give you the 195 to 205 degree water that is ideal to brew with. Now pour the 195 to 205 degree water over the ground coffee. Stir the coffee to get total saturation of the grounds then place the plunger on top of the pot and let the coffee steep for 3 to 4 minutes.

Depress the plunger slowly to push the grounds to the bottom of the pot.

Serve all the coffee in the pot after the 3 to 4 minutes of steeping. Otherwise the coffee will keep getting stronger. If you have any left, you can always transfer it to a clean, preheated air pot or a stainless steel Thermos. This will keep the coffee hot about an hour without hurting the flavor.

The French press brewing method definitely takes more time but gives us the result we are looking for. Restaurant quality coffee in the comfort of your own home.

Who is Juan Valdez?

Juan Valdez is a fictitious character who was created in 1959 to represent the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Columbia, founded in 1926. He is one of the most familiar faces in the advertising world, with his moustache, sombrero, poncho and his faithful mule, Lana.

In the first commercials, Juan Valdez used to wander around in the coffee fields, picking the ripe coffee berries with his hands. He was a romantic representative of thousands of Colombian "cafeteros", or "caficultores". At the same time, his image drew a great deal of criticism on its road to success.

The real cafetero in the early days of Juan Valdez lived in dire poverty. Anti-government guerrillas and narcotics traffickers endangered his already insecure life. Poisonous DDT was sprayed on his coffee fields, often, shockingly, while he and other cafeteros were at work. The National Federation failed to represent these horrors.

In later ads, Juan Valdez moved from the coffee fields to the American housewife's kitchen, handing her a personalized bag of freshly processed coffee beans.

In TV commercials, Juan Valdez was first played by actor Jose Duval. Because Duval was no longer felt to be representative, Carlos Sanchez of Medellin took his place in 1969. In the 1980s, the Juan Valdez commercials used Rolls Royce cars and luxury residences. In the 1990s, a new slogan was devised: Grab life by the beans. Dynamic pictures showed Juan Valdez surfing or snowboarding. In the late nineties, however, Juan Valdez disappeared from the public eye for several years. The Colombian government had drastically cut back on advertising.

In 2000, Juan Valdez, in the person of Carlos Sanchez, reappeared. Andres Pastrana, President of Columbia, awarded him the silver cross medal for national merit.

In December of that year, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia opened its first "Juan Valdez" Coffee shop in Bogota airport. Juan Valdez appeared in the movie "Bruce Almighty" at a cost to the Federation of $1,5 million.

At the time of writing (2004), the symbol of Columbian coffee is trying to make a breakthrough into North America. The first "Juan Valdez" coffee house was opened in September 2004 in Washington, and the second, one month later, in New York.

Ultimately, Juan Valdez is aiming at Seattle, the heart of American coffee-making. Starbucks officials stated they do not feel threatened by the famous moustache man. Gabriel Silva, manager of the Columbian Federation, said in return that the Federation would not go as far as having 8,000 or 10,000 Juan Valdez outlets, as their competition intends.

Make Money In Your Own Coffee Business

A 2001 survey by the National Coffee Association indicated that over 100 million people drink coffee on a daily basis and that nearly 60 million more occasionally consume coffee. Based on average drinking habits, the daily coffee drinker will consume multiple cups per day - totalling hundreds of millions cups of coffee being consumed every 24 hours.

Such enormous consumer demand coupled with the growing trend toward gourmet coffee presents an opportunity for the enterprising coffee lovers to take their double shots at generating income while working in an industry which makes their coffee passions percolate.

Coffee-loving entrepreneurs can choose from a wide range of opportunities available to find ones that best matches their tastes. Interested in starting small? Start with a couple machines and a cart. More grande ambitions? Consider a coffee shop franchise.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America's "Market Report" forecasts that the number of coffeehouses in the U.S. will grow to 15,000 by the year 2006. Will one of those coffeehouses be yours?

You can take a couple different paths can to starting your own coffee themed business. One option is to buy the equipment and supplies yourself, building your own identity and business systems. The other option is to purchase a franchise and benefit from their proven image, proven systems, and established supply chains. Let's look at some examples of coffee related businesses that you could start for yourself.

If you choose the independent route you can use a wholesaler such as Mr. Churro's to help get you started. Mr. Churro's is Miami-based wholesaler of professional grade machines for making espresso, coffee, and hot chocolate. Beyond acquiring equipment from Mr. Churro's you would need to work out other details of your business details on your own. For example, you would need to find a coffee bean supplier, find a suitable business location, and also learn how to run a coffee business.

For a more turn-key type of operation, The Coffee Beanery, a global franchise based in Michigan, provides franchisees with a wide menu of coffee based drinks as well as an attractive breakfast and lunch menus. The franchisee benefits from a proven image, a proven menu, a fully developed method of operation, and an established supply chain. It might cost more to purchase a franchise, but if you are new to business, the long term benefits might outweigh the short term higher startup costs.

Coffee News USA is a third type of coffee related business opportunity. Unlike the previous two examples, Coffee News USA does not involve making and selling coffee beverages. Instead, Coffee News is publishing opportunity in which the franchisee provides a free local edition of the weekly Coffee News newspaper to restaurants and coffee shops. The franchisor provides most of the content, and the franchisee sells advertisements to generate income.

These three business opportunities a just a few of the coffee related businesses that are available for coffee lovers. Most of the other opportunities are franchises, but not all franchises are created equal. Examining each business opportunity carefully can bring to light some important differences that might lead you to an opportunity that is better suited to you than another.